December 21 '06: In Scotland, government officials and the private sector have partnered to create a system of "virtual" power facilities which act as standby depots in case national power demand exceeds current production, as is the case during emergencies.

The Powermarketing Association OnLine ran a Scotsman story this week detailing the partnership detailing how unused diesel generators could provide the much needed power.

Partnering with companies that have generators with more than 8MW capacity, the government would buy the extra energy from the generators at a "premium price" to provide enough electricity to more than 5,000 homes.

That translates to about 3 megawatts of extra power. The generators could be turned on for as little as a few minutes at a time and could be used anywhere from 70 to 80 times a year.

Having the generators run so often would also ensure that they would be more reliable, officials said.